588 Ml'. C. F. M. Swynnerton on 



more liquid portions eaten, the solidest parts of the embryo 

 being left uneaten on the ground. The rat then ate a 

 nearly fresh egg of H.jamesoni (Bulbul-like form) which I 

 added to the others^ and a little later had eaten a portion of 

 a fresh egg of Coliuspasser aniens with which I replaced it. 

 This was now being neglected, but I put in beside it a fresh 

 G.%% of T. senegalus, and a very little later found the Colius- 

 passer egg fi Dished, but the Telephomis egg quite uneaten. 

 Some considerable time afterwards I found a very small 

 portion of the Telephonus egg eaten, the rest abandoned. 

 I left all in together for a considerable time, and, as there 

 were no further developments, added the eggs of S. ocularia 

 and Hyphantornis janiesoni (Bulbul-like form). These were 

 eventually eaten, the others remaining untouched to about 

 4 P.M., when I removed all but the Dove. This is still 

 uneaten this evening. 



Apparent preferences : (1) iS. ocularia, Bulbul-like H. 

 jamesoni (nearly fresh), C. arclens (fresh and hard-set — the 

 solider portions of the latter egg were neglected), A. albifrons. 

 (2) Turtur damarensis, Dryoscopus guttafus, Telephonus 

 senegalus, and probably Centropus nigrorufus. 



Expt. 12. Feb. 9. — Gave the rat a large mixed feed again 

 last night. A little was left in the morning. At about 

 9 A.M. I commenced to experiment, placing the practically 

 fresh egg of Colius minor in the cage. The rat tried and at 

 once left it, and continued persistently to ignore it. I later 

 added to it a fairly hard-set egg of P. layardi. This was 

 equally persistently ignored, probably, from the slightly 

 altered look of the opening, after tasting, and a very Bulbul- 

 like egg of H. jamesoni (rather set), that I showed off to the 

 rat before inserting it, was also continuously ignored. I 

 next showed him and inserted afresh lohite egg oi H.jamesoni. 

 After a little hesitation the rat tentatively tried it, and then 

 at once pulled it from amongst the other two, and ate the 

 whole of its contents. There was a possibility that the 

 freshness or otherwise of the eggs had influenced the I'at's 

 decisions, so I inserted a beautifully fresh egg of Colius 



